Systems and methods for providing automatic content recognition to verify affiliate programming

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for an Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) system that determines whether affiliates are adhering to criteria set by content providers. The ACR system, using control circuitry, receives a portion of a media asset, determines a content signature for the portion of the media asset based on audio or visual information presented in the media asset, cross-references the content signature with a database listing a plurality of reference signatures that adhere to a criterion set by a content provider, determines whether the portion adheres to the criterion, and automatically notifies the content provider in response to determining that the portion does not adhere to the criterion. The ACR system includes storage circuitry to store the database.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/720,106, filed May 22, 2015, which claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C.§119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/149,376, filed on Apr.17, 2015, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety.

BACKGROUND

In conventional systems, content providers may have rights to providecertain media assets to users. In some embodiments, these rights may beexclusive rights so that only a particular content provider has rightsto provide a certain media asset to users. Content providers may havethese rights because they produce the media assets, or because they ownthe media assets. Content providers may allow their affiliates toprovide the media assets to the affiliates' users. By doing so, acontent provider may increase the number of users who have access to themedia assets. Their affiliates may agree to display the media assetswhile adhering to the criteria set by the content providers. By doingso, their affiliates may increase the number of media assets they areable to provide to their users.

Content providers may provide contractual obligations for affiliates tofulfill when they transmit the media assets that content providers haverights to. Content providers may wish enforce the contractualobligations by determining whether the affiliates are transmitting mediaassets in a manner that fulfills the contractual obligations.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, systems and methods are disclosed herein for determiningwhether affiliates are adhering to criteria set by content providers. Acontent provider may set criteria to ensure that affiliates providemedia content to their users only in a manner that does not adverselyimpact the content provider. A content provider may wish to determinewhether an affiliate is adhering to the criteria set by the contentprovider to insure its interests are being protected. For example, acontent provider may be a broadcast station in New York City, and it mayhave an affiliate with broadcast stations in several cities in New YorkState including New York City. The content provider may provide atelevision show to the affiliate and set criteria that the affiliate isallowed to broadcast the television show to all cities in New York Stateexcluding New York City. Hence, the content provider may ensure its ownviewership is not impacted by the affiliate's broadcasting activities.The content provider may wish to determine that the affiliate isadhering to the criterion by not broadcasting the television show in NewYork City. The content provider may use an Automatic Content Recognition(ACR) system to make this determination.

In some aspects, the ACR system may receive a portion of a media assetfrom an affiliate. For example, the ACR system may receive a frame of atelevision show from an affiliate. The portion of the media asset maycontain audio information and/or video information. For example, a frameof a television show received by the ACR system from an affiliate mayhave image data and sound data associated with it.

The ACR system may determine a content signature for the receivedportion of the media asset, wherein the content signature is based onaudio or visual information presented to a user in the portion. Forexample, the ACR system may receive a frame of a television show anddetermine what image and sound data is contained in the frame. The ACRsystem may calculate a content signature for the frame by performingfunctions using the image and sound data in the frame as input.

The ACR system may cross-reference the content signature with a databaselisting a plurality of reference signatures that adhere to a criterionset by a content provider to determine whether the portion adheres tothe criterion. In some embodiments, the plurality of referencesignatures may be content signatures for a media asset that theaffiliate is scheduled to broadcast. For example, the affiliate's EPGschedule may contain information that an affiliate will broadcast atelevision show “Iron Chef” at 9:00 pm. The reference signatures may becontent signatures for frames of the television show “Iron Chef”.

In some embodiments, the ACR system may determine that the portion doesnot adhere to the criterion based on determining that the contentsignature does not correspond to a reference signature. For example, theACR system may determine that the content signature of a frame receivedat 9:00 pm from the media asset received from the affiliate does notmatch any of the reference signatures associated with “Iron Chef”. Thecriterion set by the content provider may be that the affiliate mustbroadcast the television program “Iron Chef” at 9:00 pm. Hence, the ACRsystem may determine that the portion does not adhere to the criterionset by the content provider.

The ACR system may automatically notify the content provider that theportion does not adhere to the criterion in response to determining thatthe portion does not adhere to the criterion. The ACR system may notifythe content provider of all portions that do not adhere to the criteriaset by the content provider at certain predetermined intervals, or itmay send notifications immediately upon determining that a portion doesnot adhere to a criterion. In some embodiments, the ACR system maynotify the content provider only if a threshold number of contentsignatures do not adhere to the criterion. In some embodiments, the ACRsystem may automatically notify the content provider that the portionadheres to the criterion as well.

In some embodiments, the ACR system may receive the portion of the mediaasset from a head-end of the affiliate. For example, the ACR system mayreceive signals directly from a broadcasting station of the affiliate.In some embodiments, the ACR system may receive the portion of the mediaasset from a user equipment device of a user. For example, the ACRsystem may retrieve information that is provided by the affiliate andpresented on a user's television screen or output through a user'sspeakers.

In some embodiments, the criterion may be based on one of a time windowin which a media asset can be presented, a location in which the mediaasset can be presented, and a user demographic to which the media assetcan be presented. For example, the criterion may describe that theaffiliate is allowed to provide the media asset to its users only duringcertain time windows such as between 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm, at certainlocations such as only in New York City, or when its users belong to acertain demographic such as users of the affiliates' mobile deviceapplications. In some embodiments, the reference signatures may adhereto the criterion set by the content provider. For example, the referenceframes may be associated with a broadcast of the television show “IronChef” at 9:00 pm, and the affiliate may be allowed to broadcast thetelevision show “Iron Chef” at 9:00 pm.

In some embodiments, the cross-referencing may comprisecross-referencing a threshold number of content signatures with theplurality of reference signatures. For example, the ACR system may havea threshold of five, which would lead it to cross-reference fivereceived frames from a television show broadcast by an affiliate toreference frames from a broadcast of the television program “Iron Chef”.In some embodiments, the ACR system may determine the content signaturecorresponds to a reference signature if one of a threshold number ofcontent signatures corresponds to the reference signature. For example,if one of the five content signatures determined for the five framesreceived from the television show broadcast by the affiliate correspondsto a reference signature, the ACR system may determine that thetelevision show adheres to the criterion set by the content provider.

In some embodiments, the ACR system may associate metadata of thereference signatures to the portion upon determining that a referencesignature corresponds to a content signature. For example, The ACRsystem may receive metadata describing the title (“Iron Chef”) of thetelevision program from which the reference signatures were determined.If the content signature corresponds to one of the plurality ofreference signatures, then the ACR system may associate the title “IronChef” with the portion of the media asset received from the affiliate.

It should be noted that the systems and/or methods described above maybe applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods,and/or apparatuses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which life referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a display screen generated by amedia guidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative example of a display screen generatedby a media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative Automatic ContentRecognition system in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of an illustrative process for determiningwhether affiliates are adhering to criteria set by content providers inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of an illustrative process for processing data inan Automatic Content Recognition system in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application. In some cases, the mediaguidance application may function as an Automatic Content Recognition(ACR) system. Thus, it should be noted that any embodiments relating toa media guidance application may also relate to an ACR system.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, socialmedia, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The ACR system and/or any instructions for performing any of theembodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computer readable media.Computer readable media includes any media capable of storing data. Thecomputer readable media may be transitory, including, but not limitedto, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals, or may benon-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile and non-volatilecomputer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk, floppy disk, USBdrive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processor caches, RandomAccess Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 1-2 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. For example, media assets to which the ACR systemis applied may be selected by a user through the display screens shownin FIGS. 1-2. The display screens shown in FIGS. 1-2 may be implementedon any suitable user equipment device or platform. While the displays ofFIGS. 1-2 are illustrated as full screen displays, they may also befully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A user mayindicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 1 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 100arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 100 may include grid 102 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 104, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 106, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 102 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 108, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 110. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 110 may be provided inprogram information region 112. Region 112 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 114, recorded content listing 116, andInternet content listing 118. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 100 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 102 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 102. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 120.)

Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisement 124, andoptions region 126. Video region 122 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 122 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 102. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listingsin grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 102. Advertisement124 may be selectable and provide further information about content,provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing ofcontent, a product, or a service, provide content relating to theadvertisement, etc. Advertisement 124 may be targeted based on a user'sprofile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of displayprovided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.

While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 124 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid102. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 126 may be part of display 100 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 126 may concern features related to program listings in grid 102or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 4. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 2. Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 200, television listings option 204 isselected, thus providing listings 206, 208, 210, and 212 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 200 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 208 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 214 and text portion 216.Media portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 islarger than listings 208, 210, and 212), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 3 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 300. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 4.User equipment device 300 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 302. I/O path 302 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 304, which includesprocessing circuitry 306 and storage 308. Control circuitry 304 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 302. I/O path 302 may connect control circuitry 304 (andspecifically processing circuitry 306) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 3 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 306. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 304 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 304 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 304 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 4). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 308 thatis part of control circuitry 304. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 308 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 4, may be used to supplementstorage 308 or instead of storage 308.

Control circuitry 304 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 300. Circuitry 304 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 308 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 308.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using user inputinterface 310. User input interface 310 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 312 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300. For example, display 312 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 310may be integrated with or combined with display 312. Display 312 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 312 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 312 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 312.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry304. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304.Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 312 may be played throughspeakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers314.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 300. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage308), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 304 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 308 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 304 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 310. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 310 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 300 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 300. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 304 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 304) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 300. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 300.Equipment device 300 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 310 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 300 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 310.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 300 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 304). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 304 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 304. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 304. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 300 of FIG. 3 can be implemented in system 400 ofFIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404,wireless user communications device 406, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 3 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or awireless user communications device 406. For example, user televisionequipment 402 may, like some user computer equipment 404, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 404 may, like some television equipment 402, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 404, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 406.

In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 4 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communicationsdevice 406) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 414.Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, andwireless user communications device 406 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 414 via communications paths 408, 410, and 412, respectively.Communications network 414 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 408, 410, and 412 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 412 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 4 it is awireless path and paths 408 and 410 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 408, 410, and 412, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 414.

System 400 includes content source 416 and media guidance data source418 coupled to communications network 414 via communication paths 420and 422, respectively. Paths 420 and 422 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 408, 410,and 412.

Communications with the content source 416 and media guidance datasource 418 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths, butare shown as a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 416 and 418 withuser equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 are shown as throughcommunications network 414, in some embodiments, sources 416 and 418 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 408, 410, and 412.

Content source 416 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 416 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 416 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 416 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 418 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 418may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 418 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 418 mayprovide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions and advertisements thatentice the user to keep the particular service or source indicated bythe score as one to which the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 308, and executedby control circuitry 304 of a user equipment device 300. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 304 of user equipment device 300and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 418) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 418), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 418 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices402, 404, and 406 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 4.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 414.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 416 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 402 and user computer equipment 404may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 406 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 414. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 416 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 418. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wirelessuser communications device 406. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 404 or wireless usercommunications device 406 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 404. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 414. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative Automatic ContentRecognition (ACR) system in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. The ACR system may be a component of a user equipment device300 and/or media system 400. The ACR system may include controlcircuitry 304 which contains processing circuitry 306 and storagecircuitry 308. The ACR system may use communications network 414 totransmit and receive information.

Block diagram 500 illustrates an ACR system including ingestion SDK(“Software Development Kit”) and servers 504, ID and metadata database506, recognition SDK and servers 508, recognition signature database512, network reference signature database 514, affiliate contentsignature database 516, and report generation module 518. In someembodiments, content provider 502 and affiliate 510 may not becomponents of the ACR system. Ingestion SDK and servers 504 andrecognition SDK and servers 508 may include control circuitry 304. IDand metadata database 506, recognition signature database 512, networkreference signature database 514, and affiliate content signaturedatabase 516 may include storage circuitry 308. Report generation module518 may be connected to communications network 414 and include controlcircuitry 304. Though only one of each component is illustrated in blockdiagram 500, it is understood that the ACR system may have any number ofany of the components of block diagram 500. For example, reportgeneration module 518 may receive reference and content signatures frommultiple content providers and affiliates.

As referred to herein, a content provider (e.g., content provider 502)may include a media content source (e.g., media content source 416). Thecontent provider may be any source of media content and is not limitedto broadcast sources. As referred to herein, media content and mediaassets are used interchangeably. The content provider may includebroadcast sources, as well as a peer-to-peer media asset provider, or anon-demand media asset provider. The content provider may provide ortransmit media content to a combination of other broadcast transmissionsources, affiliates and/or users. The content provider may provide ortransmit media content to users at user devices (e.g., user televisionequipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wireless usercommunications device 406) through a communications medium (e.g.,communications network 414). For example, a broadcast transmissionsource may be a network provider such as the network “The CW,” whichprovides original content owned by the network provider “The CW”.

The content provider may own rights to a media asset. For example, thenetwork “The CW” may own the rights to the television program series“Gossip Girl” as the network created the series. In some embodiments,the content provider may own the rights to a media asset because thecontent provider purchased rights to the media asset. Owning rights to amedia asset may allow the content provider to determine how the mediaasset should be provided to users.

As referred to herein, an affiliate (e.g., affiliate 510) may be anyentity which receives permission from the content provider to providemedia assets, to which the content provider has rights, to users. Theaffiliate may provide media assets to user devices (e.g., usertelevision equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wireless usercommunications device 406) through a communications medium (e.g.,communications network 414). In some embodiments, affiliates may providemedia assets to other affiliates. In some embodiments, a single mediacontent source (e.g., media content source 416) may be a contentprovider (e.g., content provider 502) for a first media asset to whichit has rights, and it may be an affiliate (e.g., affiliate 510) for asecond media asset to which it does not have rights. For example,affiliate 510 may be a local television station such as “WPIX” which isa New York affiliate of the network provider “The CW” (i.e., contentprovider 502).

The content provider (e.g., content provider 502) may enter into acontract with the affiliate (e.g., affiliate 510) to allow the affiliateto transmit media assets to which the affiliate does not have the rightsbut to which the content provider has rights. The content provider maydetermine a set of criteria that the affiliate must fulfill whentransmitting media content to which the content provider has rights.Thus, the affiliate may have an obligation to adhere to criteria set bythe content provider. The content provider may wish to be notified whenthe affiliate does not adhere to criteria set by the content provider.The content provider may stop allowing access to media content to whichthe content provider has rights to the affiliate if the affiliate doesnot adhere to the criteria.

As referred to herein, criteria include conditions set by the contentprovider (e.g., content provider 502) that the affiliate (e.g.,affiliate 510) must adhere to when transmitting media assets to whichthe content provider has rights. The criteria may govern any aspect ofthe delivery, presentation, and/or distribution of content. For example,the content provider may require that the affiliate transmit a certainmedia asset only at certain times, or only to certain locations. Thecontent provider may require that the affiliate transmit a certain mediaasset a maximum threshold number of times, or to certain userdemographics. The content provider may require that the affiliatetransmit a certain media asset to only a certain subset of users or acertain subset of user devices. The content provider may set any othertype of criteria as well.

Ingestion SDK and servers 504 receive a media asset to which contentprovider 502 has rights from content provider 502 through communicationsnetwork 414. The SDK in ingestion SDK and servers 504 may allow it todetermine content signatures for received media assets, while theservers may allow it to communicate with content provider 502 andrecognition signature database 512. In some embodiments, ingestion SDKand servers 504 may receive the media asset from a head-end of contentprovider 502. For example, if content provider 502 is a broadcastingstation, ingestion SDK and servers 504 may receive the media assetthough broadcast signals transmitted by content provider 502. In someembodiments, ingestion SDK and servers 504 may receive the media assetfrom users of content provider 502. For example, content provider 502may be an online media streaming service that transmits media from itsservers to user computer equipment 404 in an encrypted format throughcommunications network 414. Ingestion SDK and servers 504 may not beable to receive a media asset directly from content provider 502 as themedia asset may be encrypted. Hence, ingestion SDK and servers 504 mayreceive the media asset from user computer equipment 404 as usercomputer equipment 404 receives and decrypts the media asset. In someembodiments, the ACR system may include control circuitry connected touser television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or wirelessuser communications device 406 to enable it to receive media assets fromuser devices.

In some embodiments, ingestion SDK and servers 504 may receive mediaassets from content provider 502 at predetermined intervals. Forexample, ingestion SDK and servers 504 may receive media assets fromcontent provider 502 every five sections, or may receive one of everyten frames that content provider 502 transmits to users. In someembodiments, ingestion SDK and servers 504 may receive media assets fromcontent provider 502 when content provider 502 is triggered bypredetermined actions. As referred to herein, predetermined actions mayrefer to content provider 502 setting new criteria for affiliate 510,content provider 502 beginning to transmit a new media asset, contentprovider 502 setting criteria for new affiliate 510, content provider502 receiving a user request (e.g., for an on-demand media asset), andother similar actions.

In some embodiments, ingestion SDK and servers 504 may be a distributednetwork of devices that communicate using communications network 414.For example, ingestion SDK and servers 504 may include a set of deviceslocated at user devices 402, 404, and 406 and receiving media assetsfrom the user devices, and a head-end which receives media assets fromthe set of devices. In some embodiments, the set of devices may beconfigured to transmit a limited number of portions of media content toconserve power at the user devices. In some embodiments, each device inthe distributed network of devices that forms ingestion SDK and servers504 may have different capabilities because each device may use adifferent SDK. This may lead to each device having different featuresand functionality, but still being capable of communicating with otherdevices.

In some embodiments, content provider 502 may transmit only a portion ofa media asset to ingestion SDK and servers 504. For example, contentprovider 502 may transmit only a few frames of media assets to which ithas rights. In some embodiments, ingestion SDK and servers 504 mayisolate a portion of media assets received from content provider 502.For example, ingestion SDK and servers 504 may select a frame of atelevision program received from content provider 502. Ingestion SDK andservers 504 may select a frame at predetermined intervals, such as oneof every ten frames or one frame every minute, or may select framestagged with metadata by content provider 502 that marks them asimportant or special frames.

Ingestion SDK and servers 504 may create a content signature for theportion of the media asset received from content provider 502. Thecontent signature may be created using audio or visual informationpresent in the portion of the media asset. Visual information may beinformation presented through display 312 of a user device, while audioinformation may be information presented through speakers 314 of a userdevice. For example, pixel color values in a frame of a televisionprogram received from content provider 502 may be used to calculate acontent signature. In another example, wavelength amplitudes andfrequencies derived from audio data associated with a portion of a moviereceived from content provider 502 may be used to calculate the contentsignature. The content signature may be calculated using hash functions,look-up table entries, or mathematical functions. In some embodiments,both audio and visual data may be combined when creating the contentsignature. In some embodiments, the content signatures may be unique foreach portion of a media asset. In some embodiments, the contentsignatures may not be unique, and there may be a probability thatcontent signatures of different portions of different media assets areidentical.

In some embodiments, recognition SDK and servers 508 may be similar tothe ingestion SDK and servers 504, with the exception that recognitionSDK and servers 508 media content from affiliate 510 and not fromcontent provider 502. In some embodiments, recognition SDK and servers508 may receive media content only from users of affiliate 510, and notfrom a head-end, to accurately determine what media assets affiliate 510is transmitting to its users.

Content provider 502 may provide metadata information about media assetsto ID and metadata database 506 through communications network 414. IDand metadata database 506 may also receive information from mediaguidance data source 418 through communications network 414. ID andmetadata database 506 may include information about metadata of mediaassets, such as their titles, parental control ratings, summaries,ratings, creation date, and the like. ID and metadata database 506 mayalso contain a unique ID for each media asset that content provider 502or affiliate 510 transmits.

Recognition signature database 512 receives content signatures for themedia assets provided by content provider 502 (referred to as “referencesignatures”) through ingestion SDK and servers 504. Recognitionsignature database 512 receives content signatures for media assetsprovided by affiliate 510 through recognition SDK and servers 508.Recognition signature database 512 may use information from thereference signatures and content signatures to determine a unique ID andmetadata associated with the reference signatures and contentsignatures. For example, recognition signature database 512 may receivea reference signature from a frame in the television show “Iron Chef”received from content provider 502. Recognition signature database 512may analyze the reference signature to determine it was created from thetelevision show “Iron Chef”. Recognition signature database 512 mayretrieve a unique ID and metadata such as a producer for “Iron Chef” andits air dates from ID and metadata database 506 and associate these withthe reference signature.

In some embodiments, recognition signature database 512 uses heuristicsto associate an ID and metadata with received reference signatures andcontent signatures. For example, recognition signature database 512 mayaccess electronic program guides provided by content provider 502 andaffiliate 510 to determine which media assets they are likely totransmit, and then determine that the reference and content signaturesare associated with the ID and metadata for these media assets. In someembodiments, recognition signature database 512 may include a listing offeatures unique to content signatures from different media assets. Forexample, recognition signature database 512 may include a listing thatcontent signatures from the television program “Iron Chef” are likely tofall within a certain range of values. When recognition signaturedatabase 512 receives a reference signature, it may compare the value ofthe reference signature to the range and associate an ID and metadatafor “Iron Chef” with the reference signature if its value falls withinthe range.

In some embodiments, content provider 502 may provide metadataidentifying a media content it is transmitting to ingestion SDK andservers 504 along with the media content itself. Ingestion SDK andservers 504 may provide this identifying metadata to recognitionsignature database 512. Recognition signature database 512 may thendetermine an ID and metadata for the reference signature using theidentifying metadata provided by content provider 502. If a contentsignature received from recognition SDK and servers 508 corresponds tothe reference signature, recognition signature database 512 mayassociate the same ID and metadata with the content signature. Forexample, content provider 502 may provide a frame from “Iron Chef” toingestion SDK and servers 504 along with metadata identifying the titleof the program. Ingestion SDK and servers 504 may transmit a referencesignature for the frame and the title “Iron Chef” to recognitionsignature database 512. Recognition signature database 512 may use thetitle to retrieve a unique ID for the program “Iron Chef” from ID andmetadata database 506, and associate this with the reference signature.Recognition signature database 512 may receive metadata about a producerof the program “Iron Chef” from ID and metadata database 506 andassociate this with the reference signature. Recognition signaturedatabase 512 may then receive a content signature from recognition SDKand servers 508. Recognition signature database 512 may determine thecontent signature matches the reference signature, and associate theunique ID and producer information for the program “Iron Chef” with thecontent signature as well.

Recognition signature database 512 may maintain a log of receivedreference and content signatures, and their associated unique IDs andmetadata. Content provider 502 or affiliate 510 may be able to accessthe log in recognition signature database 512 through communicationsnetwork 414 to analyze their transmissions.

In some embodiments, ingestion SDK and servers 504 may transmitreference signatures to network reference signature database 514. Insome embodiments, network reference signature database 514 may store apredetermined number of reference signatures in a first-in-first-outqueue for processing by report generation module 518. In someembodiments, network reference signature database 514 may storereference signatures unless it receives instructions to delete them fromingestion SDK and servers 504. Ingestion SDK and servers 504 mayperiodically instruct network reference signature database 514 to deletereference signatures. In some embodiments, ingestion SDK and servers 504may directly transmit the reference signatures to report generationmodule 518 for storing and processing. Affiliate content signaturedatabase 516 may be similar to network reference signature database 514.

Report generation module 518 may receive reference signatures fromingestion SDK and servers 504 or from network reference signaturedatabase 514. Report generation module 518 may also receive contentsignatures from recognition SDK and servers 508 or from affiliatecontent signature database 516. Report generation module 518 may comparethe reference signatures received to the content signatures received todetermine whether affiliate 510 is adhering to the criteria set bycontent provider 502. Report generation module 518 may compare thecontent signature and the reference signature such that differencescaused to the portion of the media asset received from affiliate 510 dueto transformations such as rotation, flipping, displaying subtitles,cropping, rescaling, or format transcoding are ignored as they do noteffect the content of the portion of the media asset.

In some embodiments, reference signatures may correspond to a mediaasset that affiliate 510 is allowed to transmit to users. For example,reference signatures received at 9:00 pm by report generation module 518may be from the television program “Iron Chef” because affiliate 510would be adhering to criteria set by content provider 502 if ittransmitted “Iron Chef” at 9:00 pm to users. If a reference signatureand the content signature received at 9:00 pm correspond, reportgeneration module 518 may determine that affiliate 510 is adhering tocriteria set by content provider 502. If the content signature does notcorrespond to any of the reference signatures, report generation module518 may determine that affiliate 510 is not adhering to the criteria.

In some embodiments, reference signatures may correspond to a mediaasset that affiliate 510 is not allowed to transmit to users. Forexample, reference signatures received for the location of “New YorkCity” by report generation module 518 may be from the television program“Gossip Girl” because affiliate 510 would not be adhering to criteriaset by content provider 502 if it transmitted “Gossip Girl” to users inNew York City. If a reference signature and content signature receivedfrom New York City correspond, report generation module 518 maydetermine that affiliate 510 is not adhering to criteria set by contentprovider 502. If the content signature does not correspond to any of thereference signatures, report generation module 518 may determine thataffiliate 510 is adhering to the criteria.

In some embodiments, report generation module 518 may compare athreshold number of content signatures to reference signatures todetermine whether a content signature corresponds to a referencesignature. For example, report generation module 518 may receive tenreference signatures and ten content signatures. Report generationmodule 518 may have a pre-determined threshold of three. Reportgeneration module may compare three received content signatures to allten reference signatures to determine whether any content signaturescorrespond to any of the reference signatures. The three contentsignatures may be chosen randomly, or in order of receipt from affiliatecontent signature database 516 or recognition SDK and servers 508.Comparing a threshold number of content signatures may allow reportgeneration module 518 to account for the possibility of two contentsignatures for the same portion of a media asset being different.

In some embodiments, report generation module 518 may receive criteriafrom content provider 502 and a unique ID associated with the mediaasset transmitted by affiliate 510 from recognition signature database512. Report generation module 518 may cross-reference these to determinewhether affiliate 510 is adhering to criteria set by content provider502. For example, report generation module 518 may receive criteria fromcontent provider 502 describing that affiliate 510 is allowed totransmit only the first season of the television program “Iron Chef” andnot any subsequent seasons. Report generation module 518 may receive aunique ID from recognition signature database 512 indicating thataffiliate 510 is currently transmitting an episode from the secondseason of “Iron Chef” to users. Report generation module 518 may usethis information to determine that affiliate 510 is not adhering tocriteria.

Report generation module 518 may maintain a log of content signaturesfrom affiliate 510 that adhere to criteria set by content provider 502,and content signatures from affiliate 510 that do not adhere to criteriaset by content provider 502. Content provider 502 may be able to accessthis log.

In some embodiments, report generation module 518 may determine that amedia asset transmitted by affiliate 510 adheres to criteria set bycontent provider 502 if a threshold number of content signatures fromthe media asset adhere to the criteria. For example, report generationmodule 518 may determine that five content signatures from a movietransmitted by affiliate 510 adhere to the criteria set by contentprovider 502. Report generation module 518 may compare the number ofcontent signatures that adhere to the criteria to a predeterminedthreshold of three. Based on the number of content signatures beinghigher than the threshold, report generation module 518 may determinethat the movie transmitted by affiliate 510 adheres to the criteria. Insome embodiments, report generation module 518 may determine that amedia asset transmitted by affiliate 510 does not adhere to the criteriaset by content provider 502 if a threshold number of content signaturesfrom the media asset do not adhere to the criteria.

In some embodiments, report generation module 518 may automaticallynotify content provider 502 when it determines a content signature ormedia asset does not adhere to the criteria set by content provider 502.In some embodiments, report generation module 518 may automaticallynotify content provider 502 when it determines a content signature ormedia asset adheres to the criteria. In some embodiments, reportgeneration module 518 may notify content provider 502 of updates to itslog at predetermined intervals.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of an illustrative process for determiningwhether affiliates are adhering to criteria set by content providers inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be notedthat the process 600 or any step thereof could be performed on, orprovided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-5. For example, process600 may be executed by processing circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructedby processing circuitry implemented on user equipment 402, 404, and/or406 (FIG. 4) in order to provide information to a user. In addition, oneor more steps of process 700 may be incorporated into or combined withone or more steps of any other process or embodiment.

Process 600 begins at step 602 when the ACR system receives a portion ofa media asset from affiliate 510 through communications network 414. Theportion may be received at recognition SDK and servers 508. The ACRsystem may use the portion instead of electronic program guide dataprovided by affiliate 510 to determine if affiliate 510 is adhering tocriteria set by content provider 502 because electronic program guidedata may be outdated or incorrect. The portion of a media asset may be aframe of the media asset transmitted by affiliate 510, such as a frameof a movie. In some embodiments, the ACR system receives a portion ofthe media asset at fixed intervals. In some embodiments, the ACR systemreceives a portion of the media asset at random intervals determined bycontent provider 502 or recognition SDK and servers 508. In someembodiments, the ACR system receives a portion of the media asset whentriggered by events such as affiliate 510 receiving a channel changeindication from user television equipment 402, video-on-demand requestfrom wireless user communications device 406, powering on of usercomputer equipment 404, and the like. The ACR system may detect thesetriggers at user devices 402, 404, and 406 using circuitry fromrecognition SDK and servers 508 present in the user devices.

Process 600 proceeds to step 604 when the ACR system determines acontent signature for the portion of the media asset, wherein thecontent signature is based on the audio or visual information presentedto a user in the portion of the media asset. For example, recognitionSDK and servers 508 may use control circuitry 304 to determine a contentsignature for a received portion of a media asset such as a frame of amovie. The content signature may be determined using visual informationpresented to the user through display 312 and audio informationpresented to the user through speakers 314.

Process 600 proceeds to step 606 when the ACR system cross-references,using control circuitry 304, the content signature with a database,stored using storage circuitry 308, listing a plurality of referencesignatures that adhere to a criterion set by content provider 502 todetermine whether the portion adheres to the criterion. For example,report generation module 518 may use control circuitry 304 to determinewhether the content signature corresponds to any of the contentsignatures stored in network reference signature database 514. Thereference signatures in network reference signature database 514 mayadhere to the criterion set by content provider 502. The ACR system maydetermine that the portion does not adhere to the criterion if thecontent signature does not correspond to any reference signature innetwork reference signature database 514.

Process 600 proceeds to step 608 when the ACR system, in response todetermining that the portion does not adhere to the criterion,automatically notifies through communications network 414 contentprovider 502 that the portion does not adhere to the criterion. In someembodiments, the ACR system may notify content provider 502 thataffiliate 510 does not adhere to the criterion. In some embodiments, theACR system may notify content provider 502 when the portion does adhereto the criterion. In some embodiments, the ACR system may maintain a logof portions that do and do not adhere to the criterion.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of an illustrative process for processing data inan Automatic Content Recognition system in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that the process 700or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 3-5. For example, process 700 may be executed byprocessing circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by processing circuitryimplemented on user equipment 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4) in order toprovide information to a user. In addition, one or more steps of process700 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of anyother process or embodiment.

Process 700 begins at steps 702 and 710. The ACR system receives aportion of a media asset at step 702, as described in relation to step602. Process 700 proceeds to step 704 when the ACR system determines acontent signature of the portion as described in relation to step 604.

The ACR system also receives reference signatures from content provider502 at step 710. This may happen through ingestion SDK and servers 504.The ACR system may perform steps 702 and 710 simultaneously, or inseries. Process 700 proceeds to step 712 when the ACR system storesreference signatures in network reference signature database 514 usingstorage circuitry 308. In some embodiments, the ACR system may storereference signatures in report generation module 518. In someembodiments, the ACR system may store the content signature in affiliatecontent signature database 516.

Process 700 proceeds to step 706 when the ACR system cross-referencesthe content signature with the reference signatures using controlcircuitry 304 in report generation module 518. This may happen asdescribed in relation to step 606.

In some embodiments, the reference signatures may adhere to a criterionset by content provider 502. If the content signature corresponds to areference signature, the ACR system may determine that the portion ofthe media asset adheres to the criterion. Process 700 proceeds to step708 when the ACR system determines whether the content signaturecorresponds to a reference signature. If the content signaturecorresponds to a reference signature, then the ACR system determinesthat the portion of the media asset adheres to the criteria. Process 700may then proceed to step 714 where the ACR system associates metadata ofthe reference signature with the portion as described in relation torecognition signature database 512.

If the ACR system determines at step 708 that the content signature doesnot correspond to a reference signature, process 700 proceeds to step716 when the ACR system adds the content signature to a set ofnon-adhering content signatures. The set of non-adhering contentsignatures may be stored in a log in report generation module 518 usingstorage circuitry 308. In some embodiments, the ACR system may update acounter associated with the number of non-adhering content signaturesinstead of storing the content signature. In some embodiments, the ACRsystem may store an identifier of the portion of the media asset, suchas the time and date it was received at step 702, instead of the contentsignature.

Process 700 proceeds to step 718 when the ACR system determines whetherthe number of non-adhering content signatures is greater than athreshold. The threshold value may be predetermined, or it may be set bycontent provider 502. If the threshold is exceeded, the ACR system maynotify content provider 502 through report generation module 518 at step720. The notification may include information about non-adhering contentsignatures, non-adhering portions of media assets, or updates made tothe log since the last notification. The ACR system may empty the set ofnon-adhering content signatures or reset a counter associated with thenumber of non-adhering content signatures. If the threshold at step 718is not exceeded, the ACR system may add a new log entry to the log inreport generation module 518. Process 700 may then begin again at step702 and/or step 710 by receiving a new portion of a media asset or a newplurality of reference signatures.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 6 and/or FIG.7 may be used with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition,the steps and descriptions described in relation to FIG. 6 and/or FIG. 7may be done in alternative orders or in parallel to further the purposesof this disclosure. For example, each of these steps may be performed inany order or in parallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lagor increase the speed of the system or method.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may beapplied to any other embodiment herein, and flowcharts or examplesrelating to one embodiment may be combined with any other embodiment ina suitable manner, done in different orders, or done in parallel. Inaddition, the systems and methods described herein may be performed inreal time. It should also be noted, the systems and/or methods describedabove may be applied to, or used in accordance with, other systemsand/or methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for determining whether a first party isadhering to criteria set by a second party, the method comprising:receiving, from a first party, a portion of a media asset; extractingfrom the portion audio or visual information presented to a user in theportion; computing, using a function, a content signature for theportion, wherein the content signature is based on the audio or visualinformation presented to the user in the portion; cross-referencing thecontent signature with a database listing a plurality of referencesignatures from a second party to determine whether the contentsignature corresponds to at least one of the plurality of referencesignatures; based on determining that the content signature doescorrespond to the at least one of the plurality of reference signatures,storing an association between the content signature and metadataassociated with the at least one of the plurality of referencesignatures; and based on determining that the content signature does notcorrespond to the at least one of the plurality of reference signatures,automatically notifying the second party.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the content signature corresponds to the at least one of theplurality of reference signatures when the value of the contentsignature falls within a range of values associated with the at leastone of the plurality of reference signatures.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the portion of the media asset is a portion of a first mediaasset, and the plurality of reference signatures are content signaturesfor portions of a second media asset that the first party is scheduledto broadcast.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the cross-referencing isbased on criteria including one of a time window in which the mediaasset can be presented, a location in which the media asset can bepresented, and a user demographic to which the media asset can bepresented.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the criteria are set by thesecond party.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the cross-referencingfurther comprises cross-referencing a threshold number of contentsignatures with the plurality of reference signatures.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: based on determining that the contentsignature does not correspond to the at least one of the plurality ofreference signatures, automatically notifying the first party.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the database listing a plurality of referencesignatures is based at least in part on electronic program guidesprovided by the second party.
 9. The method of claim 1, whereinreceiving the portion of the media asset further comprises receiving theportion of the media asset from a head-end of the first party.
 10. Themethod of claim 1, wherein receiving the portion of the media assetfurther comprises receiving the portion of the media asset from a userequipment device of the user.
 11. A system for determining whether afirst party is adhering to criteria set by a second party, the systemcomprising: storage circuitry configured to store a database listing aplurality of reference signatures from a second party; and controlcircuitry configured to: receive, from a first party, a portion of amedia asset; extract from the portion audio or visual informationpresented to a user in the portion; compute, using a function, a contentsignature for the portion, wherein the content signature is based on theaudio or visual information presented to the user in the portion;cross-reference the content signature with the database to determinewhether the content signature corresponds to at least one of theplurality of reference signatures; based on determining that the contentsignature does correspond to the at least one of the plurality ofreference signatures, store an association between the content signatureand metadata associated with the at least one of the plurality ofreference signatures; and based on determining that the contentsignature does not correspond to the at least one of the plurality ofreference signatures, automatically notify the second party.
 12. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the content signature corresponds to the atleast one of the plurality of reference signatures when the value of thecontent signature falls within a range of values associated with the atleast one of the plurality of reference signatures.
 13. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the portion of the media asset is a portion of a firstmedia asset, and the plurality of reference signatures are contentsignatures for portions of a second media asset that the first party isscheduled to broadcast.
 14. The system of claim 11, wherein thecross-referencing is based on criteria including one of a time window inwhich the media asset can be presented, a location in which the mediaasset can be presented, and a user demographic to which the media assetcan be presented.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein the criteria areset by the second party.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein the controlcircuitry configured to cross-reference the content signature is furtherconfigured to cross-reference a threshold number of content signatureswith the plurality of reference signatures.
 17. The system of claim 11,the control circuitry further configured to: based on determining thatthe content signature does not correspond to the at least one of theplurality of reference signatures, automatically notify the first party.18. The system of claim 11, wherein the database listing a plurality ofreference signatures is based at least in part on electronic programguides provided by the second party.
 19. The system of claim 11, whereinthe control circuitry configured to receive the portion of the mediaasset is further configured to receive the portion of the media assetfrom a head-end of the first party.
 20. The system of claim 11, whereinthe control circuitry configured to receive the portion of the mediaasset is further configured to receive the portion of the media assetfrom a user equipment device of the user.